Valentines Day is meant to be a day to celebrate your loved ones, but it has increasingly become a consumer holiday where many feel pressured to buy chocolates, teddy bears, and tchotchkes in excess. If you’re looking for a way to show your love while also showing the planet some love, check out these eco-friendly gift and date night ideas.
- Go for a bike ride
Be active and romantic with a leisurely bike ride together. You can skip a long car drive and pick a local restaurant to bike to, or simply bike around your city and take in the sights like a tourist.
- Choose zero-waste beauty products
When you’re getting ready for date-night, a simple way to make your routine more eco-friendly is through zero-waste toiletries and beauty products.
- Visit a local farmers market
Rather than overspending on a prix fix menu, check out your local farmers market together and create a delicious, organic, local, and healthy meal together. Bonus points for a vegetarian meal!
- Go for a hike
Opt outside for Valentines Day and explore the outdoors together. Lace up your hiking boots and spend some quality time together for a renewed appreciation for the natural world.
- Shop local
If you do decide to purchase a more traditional gift, such as flowers, chocolate, or a nice dinner, consider shopping with a local business! You’ll likely find unique goods that you wouldn’t normally find in a national chain, and you’ll be supporting your local community.
- Buy an acre of rain forest land
World Land Trust allows you to purchase acres of threatened wildlife and wilderness habitat areas, including in the rain forest. Each purchase comes with a certificate and details on how your donation has been earmarked for use.
- Invest in a solar charging pack
Everyone needs a good charging pack, and this one is charged by the sun and doesn’t need to be plugged in for an eco-friendly way to make sparks fly.
- Go thrift shopping
Thrift shopping can be an exciting adventure together to see what treasure you can dig up in your local second-hand shop. You can often find high-quality, almost new pieces for a much cheaper price, and you’ll also be much kinder to the planet.
- Grow an herb garden
Weather permitting, an at-home herb garden is a gift that keeps on giving for when the sun comes back out. You’ll help make the earth a little greener, clean the air, and save a trip to the grocery store for packaged herbs.
- Volunteer together
There’s no better gift than quality time together, but take this a step further and do something good for your planet and community together. Whether this is volunteering at a nature preserve or helping to clean up a park or beach nearby, you’ll be making a memory together that you’ll never forget.
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